FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BALLANTINE BOOKS - PAGE 2

Ian Ballantine, a pioneer in publishing and founder of three important paperback houses, died Thursday at his home in Bearsville, N.Y. He was 79. The cause was cardiac arrest, his office said. In a distinguished career that spanned more than five decades, Mr. Ballantine, who was devoted to the notion that people would read a wide variety of books if they were affordable and accessible, founded Penguin U.S.A., Bantam Books and Ballantine Books. Born in 1916 in New York City, Mr. Ballantine showed an early fascination with publishing, when, as an undergraduate at Columbia University, he wrote a paper in which he described paperbound books as the great hope of publishing.

This year's back-to-school shopping list should include more than notebooks and pens. Another necessity is "The Pressured Child: Helping Your Child Find Success in School and Life" (Ballantine Books, $23.95) by Michael Thompson. Thompson, a clinical psychologist, consultant and former 7th-grade teacher, offers a wakeup call for parents who push kids to succeed in an educational system they have no idea about. Thompson takes parents back to school, figuratively and literally.

Why Men Fall Out of Love What Every Woman Needs to Understand By Michael French (Ballantine Books, $14.95 paper) Most men were never taught how -- or took the time to learn -- to communicate with women on an intimate basis, says French, who in this book recognizes four "relationship busters" (loss of intimacy, quest for validation, perfection impulse, fading of attraction). He offers solutions for returning vibrancy to relationships. 1. "Men keep their internal lives -- and their more complex emotions -- closely guarded, because either they don't understand them or they are afraid of being betrayed by them."

As Pat Booth was writing her new book, "Miami" (Ballantine Books, $5.99), she pondered ways to express the sizzling, sultry spirit the Florida city exudes. The answer? Bottling the essence of ritzy, glitzy Miami by creating a fragrance companion to her novel. "It captures the essence of Florida-those kinds of hot, beachy Florida nights. I was really trying to conjure that up for the reader," says Booth, a former model, boutique owner and photojournalist who divides her time among homes in Palm Beach, New York and London.

It's a safe bet that every loving parent of a middle-school child has longed to be a fly on the wall at his or her child's school. Perhaps then they would understand the missed assignments, the mood swings, the drama, the tears. Because most parents sure aren't getting any hints from their suddenly hyper-sensitive offspring. Linda Perlstein's "Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers" (Ballantine Books, $13.95) is the next best thing, because Perlstein was a fly on the wall for an entire school year at a Maryland middle school.

Ben Polis is the kind of kid you laughed at--or hated--in school because he couldn't seem to control himself. In his account of growing up with attention deficit disorder, "Only a Mother Could Love Him" (Ballantine Books, $13.95), Polis describes himself in 9th grade as "impulsive, angry, a smart ass, conceited, extremely violent, very intelligent, and rebellious." This makes for amusing reading as he talks about his troubled youth and his destructive tendencies. But Part Two--Strategies for Success--is what will be most helpful for families coping with ADD/ADHD.

Who knew? Jackie liked TV dinners! She made out with Marlon Brando! She wrote without commas! Thanks to a new generation of Jackie books, we may now wallow in new Jackietoids till the millennium. There's "Cooking for Madam" (A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner) by Jackie's chef Marta Sgubin (my favorite), "The Onassis Women (G. P. Putnam's Sons) by Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos, Aristotle Onassis' personal secretary (my second favorite), and "Just Jackie" (Ballantine Books) by Edward Klein, a nasty thing with an unhealthy interest in bodily fluids (my least favorite)

For years, pregnant women have pored over "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Now Hispanic and Spanish-speaking mothers-to-be have a pregnancy guide all their own: "Waiting for Bebe: A Pregnancy Guide for Latinas" (Ballantine Books, $14.95). Lourdes Alcaniz, a health reporter who lives in Hollywood, Fla., and mother of two (with another due in late September), was inspired to pen "Bebe" when, during her first pregnancy, she developed gestational diabetes, a serious condition that affects pregnant Latinas at a rate much higher than Caucasian women.

James Pipkin is a Washington lawyer who came to believe that "at some point in our lives, all of us experience a need to go off by ourselves, away from the pressures and anxieties of communal life and to find a place of solitude." So he took a leave of absence from the D.C. law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, in which he is a partner, and traveled all over the world by himself, visiting some of the most awesome and spiritual sites he could find. The long solo journey helped Pipkin in his search for tranquility.